Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fine motor skill athletic training apparatus, and more particularly to training apparatus for hitting and striking motions involving a kinetic chain or sequence of muscle movements involving initial pelvic rotation, then sequentially trunk rotation, and finally shoulder and arm motions for propelling a held implement (such as a racket, club, or bat) into a ball or other object to be forcefully and accurately struck, and still more particularly to a batting tee having means for precisely calculating the accuracy with which a batter has struck a hypothetical pitch.
Background Discussion
The use of batting tees for training and practicing hitting in baseball is well known. The batting tee apparatus has been modified in various ways over many years, but the functional features of its fundamental design have remained essentially unchanged: the tee typically includes a vertical support—most often simply a post or pole—having a top shaped to support a baseball or softball. At its lower end, the batting tee is connected to a planar base, frequently shaped in the form of home plate, having sufficient ballast to keep the tee in an upright orientation even after being struck accidentally by the bat. The vertical support is often provided with means to adjust the height at which the ball support is disposed, so as to allow the user to tailor the apparatus for his or her body height or for the particular level of swing he or she wishes to make within the strike zone for that batter. In use, the batter simply assumes a stance in relation to a ball placed on the tee and swings the bat at the ball on the tee. While ball movement is entirely eliminated, the swing action sufficiently replicates the swing mechanics the batter would use in swinging at a pitched ball that the muscle and neurological training is considered highly effective.
The present invention provides baseball and softball players with an improved method for swing and hitting training with a batting tee. In a game situation, most pitchers attempt to challenge batters with pitches that are unpredictable in their velocity and path. Thus, pitchers generally develop a repertoire of pitches that vary in movement and speed. The fundamental challenges for the batter are, therefore, to predict the path of the ball as it will pass into and through the hitting zone, to predict when it will get there, and then to swing the bat with sufficient speed and on a path so as to contact the ball optimally to meet the hitting objective. Depending on the skill and the intention of the batter when playing (whether merely attempting to make contact or trying to precisely place a hit), the batter will endeavor to time his or her swing to contact the ball at an optimal point with an optimal bat swing path. Unpredictable pitches are intended to throw off (disrupt) the batter's timing, and when successful, a pitcher can entirely undermine the batter's ability even to make contact—thus the phenomenon of the strike out.
As noted, the use of a batting tee is a well-known and is a very popular approach to swing training. The tee presents a stationary ball and allows the batter to practice balance and swing mechanics while also allowing the batter to change the ball contact position relative to the batter's stance in a controlled fashion. By eliminating the time constraints and uncontrolled contact point inherent in hitting balls pitched by a human pitcher, a batter training with a tee is able to isolate and focus on swing mechanics in particular need of improvement. This applies to batters at all levels of ability, from beginners through Major League Baseball players.
However, while removing some uncertainties along with the urgency and other time constraints from the batting environment, that very advantage of tee training disadvantageously eliminates training for a fundamental and critically important challenge in batting, namely, timing the swing. The present invention is directed to providing a solution to this problem.